Eurosport - Sun, 01 Feb 17:43:00 2009
It seems like it takes an age for anything to get done in football these days. Roque Santa Cruz to Manchester City? Andrei Arshavin to Arsenal? Tony Adams to the dole queue?
The Sunday papers continue to trot out the regulars as the transfer window begins to creek shut but so bored are they of repeating themselves that they have decided to churn out a few summer gems which should get tongues wagging.
The first of which is the rehashing of an oldie but a goodie - Robinho to Chelsea - with a summer move for the pint sized Brazilian being planned by the Blues.
Of course Chelsea are mere paupers these days compared to Manchester City so they will have to sell Didier Drogba to finance the deal.
Robinho is said to be so unhappy at Manchester City that he is willing to take a pay cut to move to London. That pay cut could be as much as £20,000 a week which would limit him to a measly £140,000 every seven days and what with living expenses being so high in London he might have to settle for an Aussie houseshare in Fulham as opposed to a plush pad of his own up the road in Chelsea.
However, who will actually be willing to pay big bucks for Drogba remains a mystery, although apparently Chelsea have already offered him to City in part-exchange for Robinho and indeed tried to push home the move this month.
Mark Hughes though is insistent that Santa Cruz is the man he wants and his last act as City manager could be persuading the club's mega-rich owners to splash out £20 million on the Paraguayan striker.
One more move that is being put on the back burner until the summer is Manchester United's planned £15m signing of Wigan's midfielder Antonio Valencia.
The Ecuadorian winger turned down a move to Real Madrid just last week and instead will move up the road to Old Trafford.
So that will leave Manchester United with a new right winger and Real Madrid still looking for one. Hmmm - what's two plus two people? Expect another old rumour to resurface any day now.
Elsewhere, the Robbie Keane to Tottenham story continues to have legs with £15m being the fee mooted - that would represent a £5m loss on the player by Liverpool.
Bolton have also been linked with a host of midfielders before the windows closes. £15m for Sporting Lisbon's Miguel Veloso looks a bit fanciful but expect a £3m bid for Portsmouth's Sean Davis or a £2m move for Rangers' Barry Ferguson instead.
There is some good news for Everton fans as Mikel Arteta is set to snub Manchester City and Arsenal and instead sign a new four-year deal at Goodison. Bremen striker Hugo Almeida could also move to the Toffees on loan as they look to bolster their injury plagued forward line.
Aston Villa have a pretty good defence as it is but Martin O'Neill is not resting on his laurels and is planning a £7m bid for Manchester City's Micah Richards.
City could also lose Richard Dunne in a £5m deal to Sunderland but does that matter when they will be playing 0-2-8 next season anyway?
Sunderland will hope ambitious signings such as Dunne will persuade Djibril Cisse to stay at the club in a permanent £10m deal but the Frenchman is said to be unhappy that his best mates Pascal Chimbonda and El-Hadji Diouf have both been sold.
Hull City continue to make ambitious noises in the transfer market - Tottenham's Darren Bent is their latest target although his two goals at Bolton on Saturday have no doubt jacked up his price.
Stoke would like to sign Gary O'Neil from Middlesbrough for £4.5m with Boro then replacing him with Reading's James Harper.
After splashing the cash on teenager Savio Nsereko, Gianfranco Zola will look to balance the average age of his West Ham strike-force by bringing in 37-year-old Henrik Larsson.
Down at Fratton Park, Portsmouth boss Adams will make a move for Aston Villa's Marlon Harewood if the beleaguered former Arsenal man manages to hang on to his job.
Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt is going nowhere though. He will be offered a new deal to stave off interest from Juventus.
Finally, in the Championship, Wolves could pay Scottish club Hearts £2.3m for Christophe Berra, while QPR are planning a £2.5m bid to finally capture long-time target Matthew Kilgallon of Sheffield United.
Comment 38 - 57 of 57
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on what date this transfer windows close????? its february oledi,,,,
yeah chelsea should get robinho and tuncay sanli to play instead of joe cole and malouda or kalou
why not?.. i agree with comment 40, at least they are gonna qualify for champions league, even they have a far away worse squad compared to arsenal, liverpool and chelsea, they are gonna pass them; i think aston is gonna be 2nd!!!
CITY FAN. BUT VILLA GET THE LEAGUE!
will chelsea buy anyone i dont think so even there roman cant be bothered to turn up
'...as the transfer window begins to creek shut...' Don't Eurosport staffers have spellchecker? The usual @#$% condensed from pages of rumour and hearsay put together by a lazy journo too interested in getting home. The word is CREAK. If you're going to write @#$% at least make sure you spellcheck it first.
well im gonna go and have a dump
well im gonna go and have a dump
comment 40 , put your @#$% back in your pants
enjoy the juice.hope ye come second !
considering how often we are winning there is lots of munting in the midlands of late
since you are familiar with the bromie booty call have a look in the urban dictionary for an angry pirate to complete your education.Is it true villa fans go Munting after league wins
I will give free spelling lessons to some of these thick-as-pig-@#$% contributors, are you one, or are you a man U supporter, not much difference really
Big Eric
City will never sell Robinho. If they did it would be out to another league. They would never sell to Chelsea. Even if Dubai end up owning Chelsea too, it will never happen.
Just seen robbie keane say he was moving too villa (lip reading expert) what is an angry pirate anyway.....
to jcquilty
You've had to much of the birmingham booty calls try an angry pirate ,migh help you to see a little clearer
aston villa will win the premier ship you heard it here first
first of all im english. you can tell who isnt by the way they bloody spell. its quite funny actually. anyway, hope keane comes back to spurs......x
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